Monday, February 14, 2011

3. 2. 1.

3 Things Learned :
  ~The Industrial Revolution was a turning point in history for the world. 
  ~Many new inventions helped to keep business alive and booming. 
  ~Reforms during this time pushed change and helped everyone involved.
2 Things Interesting:
  ~Unions achieved most everything they had set out to do.
  ~James Hargreaves named his invention after his daughter Jenny, The Spinning Jenny.
1 Question:
  ~How would this time period have been different if people did not begin to develop new machines and          methods of production?

Connection Across Time Part 2

                           Cell Phones
      Doctor Martin Cooper is the man responsible for creating the modern day cell phone. He began his journey in 1973 when he was the project manager for the motorola company. Cooper first debut his masterpiece in New York in 1973 and it was known as the Motorola Dyna - Tac. This phone weighed 2.5 lbs, had no display, and could only talk for 35 minutes. The only thing you could do with the phone was listen, dial, and talk. 

Connection Across Time Part 1

                              Communism 
       Communism is a way of government in which everyone is "equal". No matter what you do for a living, you receive money based on your need for it. A doctor with a wife and two kids may receive the  same amount of pay as someone who has a wife and two kids but digs holes for a living. In this system all property is held as common, everyone technically owns everything. Today this -ism is present in China. Mao Zedong played a great part in the coming together of this way of life. 
    

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Chapter 9 Reform

                               Unionization

      During the Industrial Revolution factory jobs were not easy or safe for anyone. Especially for the children, that worked extremely long days, six days a week. People finally began to see that it just was not right for anyone to work so hard and receive such low pay. Factory workers began to come together and plan a reform. The groups they belonged to were called Unions, and belonging to a union was very important during this time period. If you were a participant in a union you were fighting along side of your co workers to receive shorter shifts and greater pay. These people would go on strike if thats what it took and eventually began to get through to the factory owners. 
      I personally believe that unionization was the best thing that happened during this time period. It showed people that they could stand up for what they believed in and achieve success. The factory owners were taking advantage of these people and they had every right to stand up for what they though was right. If unions were never created I don't think that factory workers would have stopped what they were doing. they did not care about their employees, they cared about their own money. 

Richard Arkwright & The Water Frame

Richard Arkwright created a machine called the Water Frame. This machine made it possible to spin cotton faster than ever before. Arkwright had opened factories that produced cotton which was a new thing for the people of the Industrial Revolution. Usually cotton spinning was done in small groups in their homes, now with the invention of the Water Frame spinning could be done much more efficiently. This being said, women of the time period did not like this and feared that their good cotton spinning talent would no longer be appreciated. Although not everyone liked the idea of the Water Frame, it did make cotton production much faster.

James Hargreaves & The Spinning Jenny

      The Spinning Jenny was created in 1764 by a man names James Hargreaves. The purpose of this machine was to spin eight lines of thread at a time instead of one. There is a myth behind the naming of this machine which says that one day Mr. Hargreaves' daughter, Jenny, knocked over the family spinning wheel. The reaction of Mr. Hargreaves was that he could improve this machine and when he did, he named it after Jenny.




      When James died in 1778 it is estimated that around 20,000 Spinning Jenny's were being used throughout Britain. This is because the new produce made the job get done a lot quicker and easier. James Hargreaves and his daughter Jenny changed the world of spinning forever. 

Jethro Tull & the Seed Drill

The Seed Drill of 1701 was created by Jethro Tull. This was a machine that allowed farmers to sow seed in well spaced rows at a specific depth. This technique greatly improved the outcome of farmers crop output. 


This invention changed the world because it not only made farming faster, but it also became a basis for other machines and techniques. Having come out in 1701, other inventors used Tull's idea to improve farming for the future.